A group of 25 American Catholic peace activists, defying a U.S. travel ban to Cuba, will set out on Wednesday from the Communist island on a 50-mile (80.5-km) trek to the U.S. Guantanamo Navel Base aiming to protest conditions for terrorism suspects. The priests, nuns and academics belonging to "Witness Against Torture" apparently arrived in Cuba as tourists from a third country, breaking U.S. restrictions on travel to the Caribbean island. The group plans to leave from eastern Santiago de Cuba and arrive at the base on Saturday, International Human Rights Day, and demand to see prisoners on a hunger strike. ... http://abcnews.go.com

A Republican leader in the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday said he would not stand in the way of elections for a new majority leader early next year if Rep. Tom DeLay's legal troubles were still brewing then. "I wouldn't oppose an effort to do that necessarily," said acting House Majority Leader Roy Blunt, the Missouri Republican who temporarily replaced DeLay after the Texas congressman was charged in September with conspiracy and money laundering.Blunt is in the awkward spot of having to voice support for DeLay while also leaving himself in a position to vie for the majority leader job if DeLay is convicted or if his case drags on.He was responding to a reporter who asked whether he would support leadership elections if federal charges against DeLay were still pending in late January when Congress returns from a winter break and if enough House Republicans called for a vote-of-confidence in DeLay....http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051207/pl_nm/delay_dc

A man facing a possible murder charge for beating his stepdaughter so badly she is in a permanent vegetative state asked Massachussetts' top court on Tuesday to keep her alive in a case that highlights the divisive "right to die" issue in America. Jason Strickland, a 31-year-old auto mechanic, is accused of battering 11-year-old Haleigh Poutre, whose brain was found partly sheared when she was hospitalized on September 11. Her body was covered with burns, cuts and bruises and her teeth were broken.Strickland's wife -- the child's maternal aunt and sole legal guardian -- was found shot dead on September 22 with her grandmother in an apparent murder-suicide a day after police accused her of hitting Haleigh with a baseball bat.The case is as much about who has legal rights to the girl, who is now on life support in state custody, as it is about her ultimate fate and whether the state can remove the breathing machines and feeding tubes keeping her alive....http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051207/ts_nm/crime_massachusetts_dc

Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay said that he expects money-laundering charges against him pending in Texas to be dismissed as early as this month and insisted he sees no sign House Republicans want to hold an election to replace him. ``There is no leadership election, and there is no scheduled leadership election, and there can't be a leadership election until a vote of the conference removing me from office,'' DeLay, a Republican, told reporters today at the U.S. Capitol. ``I'm still the elected majority leader.'' DeLay stepped aside from his leadership post in September when he was indicted by a Texas grand jury. ...http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=acgAv.51Pb28&refer=home

A military plane loaded with Iranian journalists crashed into a 10-story apartment building Tuesday as the pilot attempted an emergency landing after developing engine trouble. At least 115 people died, the Tehran police chief said. The C-130, a four-engine turboprop, crashed in the Azari suburb of Tehran, site of the Towhid apartment complex that is home to air force personnel and near Tehran's Mehrabad airport. Before firefighters extinguished the blaze, flames roared from the roof and windows in several of the upper floors. Panicked residents fled the building. Police held back a crowd of thousands, many of them screaming and weeping that they had to find friends or loved ones who were in the building. ...http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/12/06/world/main1099216.shtml?CMP=OTC-RSSFeed&source=RSS&attr=World_1099216

A German man alleged in a lawsuit Tuesday that the CIA held him captive and tortured him in Afghanistan last year after the spy agency mistakenly identified him as an associate of the Sept. 11 hijackers. In the latest controversy surrounding the CIA's ``rendition'' program in the war on terror, Khaled al-Masri said he was taken into custody while attempting to enter Macedonia on New Year's Eve 2003 and flown to Afghanistan. During five months in captivity, he was subjected to ``torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment,'' says his lawsuit in U.S. District Court in suburban Alexandria, Va. The American Civil Liberties Union is representing him. ...http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-5460936,00.html